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Research and Publishing: FWCI

Research guide for information resources on citation count, journal impact, author identification, publishing, rankings and statistical analysis of publications

Feild-Weighted Citation Impact

Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) is the ratio of the total citations actually received by the denominator’s output, and the total citations that would be expected based on the average of the subject field. Source: Snowball metrics recipe book

FWCI is normalized for subject disciplines, publication years and publication types. FWCI can be obtained at publication level, researcher level, custom group level and institutional level.

FWCI for a publication

FWCI for a publication is obtained by taking the number of citations received compared to the expected number of citations for similar publications. Similar publications are determined by publication year, publication type, and subject area.

A FWCI greater than 1.00 means the publication is more cited than expected.

How to get FWCI

FWCI for a researcher

FWCI for a researcher is the average of all the FWCI of their publications since 1996 or for the time period selected. It can be used as a measure of the impact of the researcher.

A FWCI greater than 1.00 means the researcher is more cited than expected.

Note that:

  • Only publications found in Scopus have FWCI
  • It is easily affected by outlier publications
  • It is not recommended for use when a researcher has a small number of publications

Using SciVal for FWCI

FWCI is available, together with other metrics, in SciVal and uses the data in Scopus.

Create an account with SciVal using your SMU email and create your own password (do not use your password for Microsoft Outlook). If you already have an account for Scopus or ScienceDirect, you can use the same account as they are all products of Elsevier.

Login to SciVal, find your author profile in Scopus and link it to your account.

Your name can be found under the person icon and make sure it is selected. Click Overview in the top menu bar to view selected key metrics for pre-determined year ranges available in the drop down list.

Alternatively, click Benchmarking which gives more flexibility in the year range and the metrics. Select FWCI as a metric and any other metrics e.g. citation count, scholarly output, h-index.

Click Export to get an Excel file with the metrics selected.

The use of electronic resources must comply with the Appropriate Use of Electronic Resources Policy and Singapore Management University Acceptable Use Policy